A good monitor is an essential tool to get work done these days and the market is filled with good monitors. The AOC C4008VU8 4K curved monitor is one of the latest entrants into the space and it wants to make a home on your desk. Measuring in at a massive 40″, it will certainly take a place of prominence on your desktop should you choose to throw your money at AOC. I’ve reviewed a few monitors this size but those have been the UltraWide variety with a 21:9 aspect ratio. The AOC C4008VU8 4K is your standard 16:9 aspect ratio so let’s get into the review to see how it does.

Specifications

The AOC C4008VU8 4K monitor has the following features and specifications:

What’s In The Box

AOC C4008VU8 4K monitor

Power cord

Power adapter

HDMI cable

DisplayPort cable

AUX cable

Manuals and documentation

AOC toes the line in design there’s nothing out of the ordinary here.

Design

The AOC C4008VU8 toes the line of what most monitors are doing these days in terms of design. That is to say, it’s neither boring nor is it cutting edge, it just is. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this either. What matters is the display you’ll be staring at for hours on end and in terms of physical looks, most displays look the same. With that said, the AOC look is clean and simple made mostly of plastics with the front bezel made to appear as if it were aluminum.

There was one issue we had with our unit. The trim piece at the top of the monitor was starting to bubble up a bit off the body of the monitor. Of course this didn’t look so good aesthetically but more importantly, it allowed light leakage from the top. After inspecting the trim all the way around the monitor, I did notice that some areas were just not as secure as others. I can’t say that every AOC C4008VU8 will have this issue but ours certainly did. So far the rest of the trim has held up fine, I did put a bit of tape on the small bit at the top to hold it down so I didn’t see the light leak.

The trim around the edges of the monitor had a few spots where it seemed they weren’t secured well enough. One spot was bad enough to bubble and cause light leak.

The stand on this AOC is only adjustable for tilt and there is no height adjustment. It would have been nice to have some height adjustment here for those who would need it. That being said, the monitor is fairly large and I did find it’s fixed height to be comfortable for my use. There is a VESA mount at the back which could be used to mount to an adjustable stand or the wall if you don’t like the included stand.

Around the back is fairly simple as well, a nice long vent for cooling the monitor along with all of the available ports. The power port, one HDMI 1.4b, one HDMI 2.0, two DisplayPorts, one D-SUB, one AUX in, one headphone out, and four USB 3.0 ports (one with charging functionality).

Overall the design is basically what most monitor manufacturers are doing these days. With the exception of the small portion of trim that was bubbling up on my unit, it’s a nice design. We’re hoping we may have gotten an early unit and that issue won’t be a real problem.

A decent array of I/O.

Display

Let’s start off with the obvious here, this is not an IPS (In Plane Switching) display but a VA (Vertical Alignment) display. I wouldn’t even suggest that any serious gamer looks at this display as a gaming unit. I’m not much of desktop gamer but I did play a few Steam games on this monitor, nothing intensive, and they seemed to perform okay. There were a few instances of drop frames so I think you could get away with some casual gaming but most certainly nothing intensive.

With the gaming question out of the way, the AOC C4008VU8 does have plenty of other features that should make non-gamers happy. I found the color reproduction to be outstanding here. AOC says this panel has 1.07 billion colors with a 10-bit color depth. It certainly makes images pop nicely which is really amazing for photography work. Adding to the color reproduction qualities is the fact this is a 4K resolution monitor.

With a 4K monitor, photo editing is a treat. Being able to see that much more of your photo without having to zoom and pan as much is nice. Using Photoshop/Lightroom on this monitor was a great joy, I loved being able to see so much detail in my photos. Video editing is also amazing. Being able to watch your 4K video footage and edit it in Premier Pro beats the 1080p monitors I normally use.

Lots of space on this monitor.

Watching movies and 4K/HD video was a real treat. Blacks were nice and deep and whites were very true. Viewing angles on the AOC C4008VU8 are amazing. AOC says their “Flicker-Free Technology” also reduces eye fatigue. The company uses a Direct-Current backlight system that is supposed to aid in reducing eye fatigue and make viewing “healthier.” I did find that the monitor could pick up some glare at certain angles. For example, the lamp behind me had a tendency to glare off the screen until I moved it slightly to the left.

While this isn’t really built to be a gamers monitor, I do think it’s built to be a productivity monitor. The amount of space available is astounding. I’m able to have 4 windows open at just about the same size as a standard laptop which is great for productivity. I can write an article while referencing something in another window and never have to go back and forth. There really is a ton fo space and real estate on this monitor and it can be used very effectively.

One other feature the AOC C4008VU8 has is the ability to display 4 different sources. The company calls it Picture by Picture. Hooking up four sources and viewing them all at the same time on the display will reduce each source to 1920×1080 but it could be useful for some who use multiple machines.

Overall the display on this monitor is really nice for the size it is and the price point. The lack of IPS technology and a higher refresh rate is probably a deal breaker for gamers but for those looking for super multitasking, this really is great. Photographers and videographers will also love the 4K resolution and massive amounts of space.

Sound

There are speakers on the C4008VU8 but they’re less than stellar and probably only suitable for short YouTube videos or spoken word audio. I’d highly recommend separate headphones or speakers for anything more intensive.

Price/Value

Pricing on Amazon is a mixed bag ranging from the low $826USD to $850USD. I don’t think the price is far off, $799USD would have been a good solid price. I do think there is value here, I was a bit disappointed by the trim that was bubbling up but that could be an isolated thing. The value here lies in the multitasking and benefits for photographers.

Wrap Up

If you don’t need a gaming monitor but need a multitasking monitor with 4K, this is one to consider. I’d be sure to inspect yours before you dive into it too quickly to make sure there are no quality control issues with the build.

*We were sent a review unit of the AOC C4008VU8 4K monitor for the purposes of this review.

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